Red Queen
by Coaxial Creature
Summary: Movie-'Verse. When the Autobots land, they find robots, controlled by the Red Queen program who has captured Bee, and decided he was not a life form, but rather a virus sent to destroy them. The queen's orders are clear. Off with their heads...
1. Prologue: Off With His Head

Fandom: Transformers/Movie-'Verse

Title: The Red Queen

Author: Dex

Characters: Ensemble.

Pairings: None yet.

Rating: PG-13 for now, and for what I have in mind so far

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters, nor the settings. Please don't repost. Flames will be ignored.

Summary: The Autobots and Decepticons find not humans but robots controlling the earth. How will this change their search for the Allspark?

Author's Notes: Adopted this bunny from writer83729. The bunny was: how would the Transformers cope if they landed on a post-apocalyptic earth, where machines are the super powers and humans are just trying to get by? Mind you, the computers that now "rule" earth wouldn't be like the Transformers: they would do what their program demands them to do: destroy humans. Kind of like a gigantic hive mind all attached to a "super-computer" (let us call her the Red Queen) that went ballistic (either that or is too dedicated to its program and mission like in the Space Oddysey books and in Resident Evil 1...either way, humans are screwed). And, like in I, Robot and Terminator, this supercomputer controls all technological things. Meanwhile, there are humans around, doing what they can just to survive. So here are the issues:

1) The Autobots don't know that humans are of a "higher intelligence/consciousness" than other fauna

2) The Red Queen computer thinks that the Autobots and/or Decepticons (with their "individual thoughts") are viruses and are subsequently trying to purge them out of its system

3) Once the Autobots do find out that humans are kind of like them in terms of thought, then there's a whole trust issue, because then they would have to deal with a whole planet full of scared humans with the same mindset as Sector Seven (because after all this, I think that all humans would have a distrust towards machines).

4) Much love if you can put in "communication problems" (if the Red Queen program and all it controls only communicate in 0s and 1s, so the Autobots will have a hard time trying to communicate with Sam)

---

**Prologue: Off With His Head**

The drones noticed the life form before the main program had; they notified it. At first they had assumed the life form was a meteor. However, it had been sending a message, much like the internal communications used by the drones. They had scanned it once they noticed the message, and found no organic life form, so the only conclusion could be that it was mechanic in nature. When the drones received their orders, the objective clear and not unexpected: terminate. With a soft whir, there was a flurry of activity, the drones moving to take down enemy once it landed. They continued to trace the life form, taking into account each subtle shift. They were prepared when it came, surrounding it, watching it crash into the Earth's surface, leaving a smoking crater.

The life form emerged from the hole in the ground it had created; it was male in appearance, the drones informed their queen, but she curtly reminded them that it meant nothing. Speculation was useful at times, but it mattered very little to her. The drones listened to her ranted lecture, even as they pulled closer to the lone life form, approximately fifteen feet in size, yellow and black. They took vague notes about its description, before they turned to the problem of termination. The size could be a problem, but they had numbers, and it seemed curious, canting it's head, taking a small step forward. It meant they had the advantage as it would not suspect the attack.

It tried to communicate, using an internal communication system, and the drones froze, sending a message to their queen. The message was not directed at them, as it was sent out into space. This life form was also incomprehensible. No doubt the queen would want to be informed, even if she could not understand the message herself. More importantly, the Red Queen would know what to do with this life form. They chattered amongst themselves, as they waited for the inevitable order. Destroy the signal. They did so happily, focusing on the message first. It was time sensitive after all, while terminating the life form was not. They sent up firewalls before they set about to chopping it up, sending each piece to another system, where it was deleted. The queen did not like to take chances, so she would no doubt check over their work at some later point; none of the drones wished for her to turn her wrath upon them.

The drones moved forward, attacking, choosing weapons that were laser based, guessing they would be most effective. It stopped talking attempting to communicate at least, moving backwards, a helmet coming down over it's face, weapons coming from it's arms. The drones took images, and sent them to the queen. She finally stopped speaking, and the drones held off for a moment, while the order came in. Terminate it, quickly.

The plunged forward. The life form shot at them, some of the ranks going down. The front lines, mostly, and the others moved over their fallen partners. They also asked the queen for reinforcements. They had not anticipated the size of this creature, or how advanced it would be. The queen quickly agreed, dispatching four more troops. She wanted to take no chances.

The life form did something unexpected then. Gears whirring, it began to change. Not that it changed their order. Except that the queen had been watching through one of the drones. _Take it alive_. The drones changed tactics, even as the life form finished; when it was done, a vehicle unlike any the drones had encountered sat in front of them.

It made no difference. Until the queen gave another order, they would do capture this life form. They quickly decided to herd it away from the queen. After that, there were few places where they could sabotage one of its size, and they argued for a brief moment. They finally decided on an abandoned quarter, the alleyways barely wide enough for this life form to get through. They sent some scouts on ahead, throughout the alleys, and began their chase.

The life form slowed when he came to the alleys, then revved his engine. One of the scouts dropped onto his windshield; while it held, the life form veered to the left, which it had no room to do. The side of this new form scraped against the brick wall of an abandoned building. It whined, slowing, trying to right itself.

By then, the drones were on top of it. They did what they could to cause it pain, as that had forced it to decelerate. It writhed under them, as best as it could when it was a vehicle, the same whirring noise warning them that it would go through another metamorphosis.

The swarm they had become attacked the parts exposed as the life form changed, and the whine it let out was louder. The drones ignored it, attacking, even as it was in the process of changing. It even attempted to fight back in that state, but if the movements were any indication, it was losing strength. They continued until it was down, and still. They sent the coordinates, and a small description of the life form, to the queen. They updated her on the weight so she could provide adequate transportation. When they had first seen the meteor, and discovered it to be sentient, they had assumed it was coming in a vehicle of some kind, and had not weighed it. Now that it was stable, they knew that there was no vehicle as the life form itself acted as a vehicle.

They all were ordered to stand guard, which they set about doing, waiting until the queen's appointed vehicle came to transport this life form to one of her laboratories.


	2. Chapter 1: Virus Scan

** Chapter 1: Virus Scan**

The Red Queen wanted to see her new subject for herself. She chose one of the more advanced drones, gracing its body with a part of her program; it gave up all control to her, just as any of the other drones would. She moved into the laboratory where they had been holding the new subject, which she had assumed was a life form.

After seeing the images, and hearing full reports, she was not sure after all. It could be an advanced virus. The thought bothered her, and she bypassed the security, stepping into the room where the subject remained, strapped down. The drones had been careful to allow for no movement, as she had ordered. She moved to its head, placing her hand on its cheek, and its optics came to life, brightening quickly. She spoke, announcing herself, but all it did in response was whine, and struggle, which it soon stopped, as it realized that the attempt to be futile. She nodded, and spoke again, once again giving her name. Her rank should have been enough to humble it. The fact that she herself would come to check on it had no effect.

Perhaps it did not believe her because she had chosen a drone for its qualities, not its gender, and this one happened to be male in appearance. The subject whined again, and she did what she could, scanning it, a slow process due to how complicated her subject was this time. "Foreign life form." Her words were bland, almost making her sound bored, and it focused on her. For a moment, the Red Queen acknowledged its sentience before she came to a final conclusion of its true nature. "Virus detected. Objective: terminate."

She motioned another drone over, giving her orders. Find out if this virus could tell them where it had come from, and if there were others of its kind coming before termination.

---

Bee had no idea what the life form had said to him; it had spoken, there was no doubt of that, but he had not been able to make out words. At least, not yet. He did, however, have light access to what they called 'the net'. The web provided him with information, although he was quickly cut off, whining again at the pain that came along with the denial.

He lightly pushed at the firewalls, and virus scans, which seemed to indicate that they thought him a threat. He shivered slightly at the thought, although the way he was bound to the table barely allowed for that movement; what exactly did these life forms think he was? Tensing at a push back from one of the stronger firewalls, Bee prepared to battle, as much as he could in his state.

_H-h-hostile. T-t-they t-t-think w-we are viruses._

Bee relaxed slightly at the internal communication, although he would have preferred to speak to an Autobot. Or perhaps not. It would have meant one of the Autobots were captured. Still, Bee responded, happy for the company for now. _I sent a message to the Ark, but have yet to hear back from Prime. I hope to see them soon. _

There was a pause, and for a moment, Bee feared that Frenzy, wary of the other Autobot's potential arrival, had pulled away. _I-if I-I send y-your m-m-message for you, t-t-they w-will save me and B-Barricade as well?_

Bee took the initiative to make that promise. _Yes, but I believe it best if I send the message._ They would be more likely to come if he spoke to them personally. Frenzy agreed, and they spent the next couple of minutes going over what had drawn them to this planet, and deciding on what message would be sent. Frenzy would hack into the system and boost the signal. He had little energy to spare, and no matter how good a hacker he was, they would sense him soon. A short message would have to be sent, something that would get the Autobots here.

One word was sent: Allspark.

---

The Ark had found an extremely brief message from Bumblebee, and Prime sighed, tense in his seat, worrying about the younger mech. He should have contacted them already, and the fact that he had only sent one word indicated that Bumblebee had been cut off; he would only stop if he was in danger.

Jazz was piloting, and he would be pushing the Ark to go as quickly as possible, but Prime doubted it was enough. If he'd had anyone else to spare, he would have sent someone else to go with the scout. As it was, he barely had enough on this ship. They were scattered, as were the Decepticons, searching for the Allspark, which had left only Jazz, Ironhide, Ratchet Bumblebee, and Prime on the Ark.

"We're approaching the planet," Ironhide announced.

Prime relaxed a little, hoping to find Bumblebee soon after they landed. "We all go after him." He spoke softly, and no one objected. It seemed they were all just as eager to find the young scout. It seemed to take too long for them to get close enough to the planet to use their protoforms to land. Soon enough, however, Ironhide informed him they could. Prime nodded, and stood, the rest following his lead.

"We land, and we find Bumblebee."

Ordinarily, Prime would have gone himself, taking note of the communication issues, and have told Ironhide and Jazz at least to follow him if he did not contact them within a reasonable time period. However, the one word Bumblebee had managed to send was important enough that Prime felt it necessary to take the others.

They moved quickly, paying little attention to the voyage as they had traveled in protoform, and focusing on how and where they would land, adjusting the angles and speed as they got closer and could tell more clearly tell what would be needed given the fact that this planet was mostly water. One of the large bodies of land was where Bumblebee's message had originated. The message had clearly embedded his location, and they would arrive within a couple miles. Ten at most.

Prime did as much as he could to narrow down the location, quickly transforming into his vehicle mode, waiting for the others before he started towards the signal.

---

The Red Queen had been on the lookout for other viruses. Four more had arrived, and the program that she was composed of chose another drone, riding its body for now. She would have to work quickly. These viruses were resistant, especially the smaller one. How odd that it would be the one to fight back against her so much.

She moved to the small one, the bullet proof case it was in almost giving way. But it was running out of energy, and did not hit the wall with enough force to knock the case over. It had been slightly amusing at first, quickly becoming an annoyance. She turned her thoughts to the virus, and how its store of energy was decreasing. Good. Maybe that would terminate the virus. The larger one might have a proportionateley larger store of energy. This could be a problem if the four new ones were larger, as she suspected they were. The smaller one had come with another larger virus, indicating that he could not move alone - at least not to the planet's surface. She had the drone pick up the case she had commissioned especially for this virus, bringing it into the room with it's larger partner, to see if it would speak to the other one.

The yellow virus turned to watch the silver one, who was hitting the walls, once again. It did nothing, as the prison had been constructed to stand upright, the virus' strength taken into consideration. The virus were very advanced, almost sentient. At least, they mimicked sentience so well they might as well be sentient.

The Red Queen was programmed to destroy virus and to destroy sentience. Therefore, viruses or sentient beings, they would die. However, she remained persistent in her thoughts of these as a virus. It was a shame that three drones earlier this morning insisted they were sentient; the drones themselves had begun to show free thought, and she terminated them. Their remains would provide parts for more drones, however. Ones who would follow her, blindly obedient. That was far more efficient than arguing about what should or should not be done.

She turned her complete attention to the matter at hand. These viruses were too complex for her to bother with attempting to break down their codes. She wanted to test their resilience. She brought her hand up, the blade coming out of it's sheath, above the knuckles, extending past her fingers. She calculated, coordinating two movements, bringing her hand down, and unlocking the case.

The virus twitched, screeching as the blade cut through it. She turned to the larger one, taking in the way his optics dimmed. She pulled her hand back, the small virus stuck on the blade, too large to be completely impaled. She studied it until it fell still, and then she shook her arm, until the virus fell to the floor.

She called another drone to pick up the remains to see if they could use any of its parts. She would have to decide on how to terminate the other virus, and that would take precedence at the moment. They had at least five other viruses to deal with, at least one larger. They had failed to capture the one that had brought the smaller virus here.

**---**

Author's notes: Reviews are love. They make me a puddle of happy; I tend to try and write for stories that get reviewed rather than not cause I know people appreciate the stories then. And the bottomless pit that I call my ego loves reviews :D So I tend to write faster for the stories that I get more reviews for. So, seriously, if you wanna see more of this quicker... Feed my ego. (Not a pretty reflection of me, but I figure at least it's honest.)


	3. Chapter 2: Riding Bumblebee

**Chapter 2: Riding Bumblebee**

The Red Queen was eternal, sleepless, omnipotent. She watched over her own kind endlessly, calculating, plotting. They knew her as god, or as close as they would come when she rode them, electricity shared, the warmth and knowledge and skills that she gave to them.

The bodies that they gave to her.

But none quite as impressive as these new ones; the viruses could provide useful if she could manage to terminate them without actually destroying the bodies. She still wanted to analyze the viruses themselves. Calling upon one of her drones built for the purposes of fulfilling the queen's scientific inquiries, she rode it, it's optics coming to life as she entered. It stood, doing her bidding, allowing her to control it completely. She moved back to the newest virus, and now the only one they had who was still alive.

She spent the day studying its prone body, still in a state of forced stasis. The drone she now rode was the drone who had figured out how to control the virus this much. That also meant that it would know the most about how the virus functioned.

The Red Queen spent hours on the subject, until it woke. She attempted to communicate once again; she had been programed to communicate in binary code, and had never seen a reason to learn about how the humans communicated. It meant that she had no way to contact the humans, but she had very little to no interest in them. The only reason to concern herself with the organic life forms was to destroy them, as they once would have destroyed her. Since that time, exterminating the human race had been another form of self preservation.

Because of its familiarity with the virus, the drone came up with the ideal way to store the virus' information. The Red Queen picked out the most advanced drone it had within its ranks, and ordered it to meet her in this laboratory. It came quickly, and she had it send itself into the same state of stasis as the virus; with them both pliable, she transferred the virus into the drone, although she had to compress many of the files to make all the data fit in one body, quickly restraining the drone itself.

It should have been a simple transfer to the body, but even without the virus, the body had some firewalls set up to protect invasion from intruders. Interesting. This was not expected. She turned to the virus, the drone who's optics had brightened. It tried to speak, and quickly realized that the drone would only do so in the binary system she had set up; the vocal cords the mouth, would only speak two words - zero and one - when it was necessary to speak at all. Mostly, the drones simply fed her data. When she entered them, she tapped directly into their database; they in return got temporary access to her memories. All the drones were equipped with a small internal communications chip, and when they needed to, they used that to communicate with her, through the chip. She spent much of her time in repose in the giant computer that was not her original 'body' but rather a supercomputer that she had humans start for her, and drones continue; even now, they improved it when possible, and they were already building another new supercomputer to place her in. The computer gave her, in general, more speed, as well as more access to her drones. Since they were never certain which drone she would ride at any given moment, and since she could change at whim, they sent their messages to the computer itself. When she wanted to get those messages while riding a drone, she tapped into the computer, using the passwords to get in, then erasing those memories from the drone. It was a complicated enough process that she preferred to spend her time in repose; none of the drones she had created had given her good enough reason to spend more time riding them than absolutely necessary.

However, the virus was useful enough that it might prove more suitable to her than being in repose. It depended on so many variables, and she turned away from the drone, thinking it unimportant for the moment. It was only a temporary horse for the virus after all.

The queen turned all her attention to the now empty horse, neither the size nor the firewalls intimidating her; she would break this body's defenses no matter how long it took her. She might have to chose another horse to ride, if this one did not give her all the information that she needed. Another might be more suited to the task, but she would worry about picking out the one who could aid her only if this drone proved incapable, even while it was being ridden.

---

Prime stopped in front of the only building that they had seen that was not abandoned; while the others were decrepit, paint peeling, walls crumbling, with dusty windows, this one had clearly been taken care of, although there were no windows to compare. It was glaringly clean.

He quickly changed into bipedal mode, the soft whirs behind him telling him the others were following suit. No one questioned Prime, or his logic, although one of them did pull closer, and when he looked back, he saw Ironhide taking another step forward. "What are we waiting for?" The weapon's specialist tensed, arm raised slightly, obviously preparing for a fight already.

"Bumblebee was captured, which means there is a threat. However, that also means that we should show some caution." Perhaps even restraint.

Ironhide grumbled to himself, but nodded, and let Prime take another moment to think. There was no need to tell the others to follow him as undoubtedly they would unless ordered otherwise. The doors were incredibly small; they should have opened, by sheer force, but they did not. Prime called Jazz over, and had him work on hacking their way in, because he was most qualified to do so amongst the four.

Prime watched him struggle, and he pulled away at one point. "They know we're comin'." Jazz shrugged. "They know 'cause there was no way ta even try ta break the code, not without warnin' 'em."

Jazz had gone back to the work, before Prime nodded, because they had to get in regardless of if whatever was in there knew if they were coming or not. Ironhide shifted his weight slightly, arm down now, although he remained as tense as before. Prime himself prepared for a fight, although it showed less. Instead, he kept his mind clear, unsure of what any of them would find behind those walls. Unsure of if they would even find Bumblebee, although at least information that would lead them to the younger scout should be available to them in there.

Jazz finally stepped back, the doors sliding open. The rest of the wall could come down, causing permanent damage. Should the beings inside turn out to be unexpectedly peaceful, Prime would have the others help repair the wall. For now, he knew little enough that he felt uncomfortable risking Bumblebee by being polite.

---

The Red Queen checked the computer once more, sending out the message that she would be spending a considerable amount of time in the viruses' body. She had finally convinced the firewalls that she was the proper inhabitant of the body, and after that, she could ride it as she would any other drone.

Her optics came to life and the same drone who had so recently been blessed with her presence released her new body. She stood, clumsy, not used to the weight of the body, the heft of the body's arm more than any body she regularly used.

She attempted to speak, and only whined. It was broken. She called forth more drones, those who had been trained for repairs. She fled, back to the computer, commanding that the virus be fixed, before turning her attention another problem that required her attention. The building had been hacked into, and the drones had not deployed themselves; they needed her orders, and in the virus' body, she had not been able to check on the computer. The virus' body lacked the chip that would allow it to communicate with her mainframe. She quickly ordered the drones already working on the virus to add the chip.

After that, it was only a matter of deploying the drones, as well as fixing the systems that kept the building safe. She used the computers set at the front hallway, finding the four other viruses; the black and white one no where in sight, logic dictated these to be the four who had most recently landed. Pleased by the sight, she also saw one of them form a canon, blasting her drones. Obviously, they were hostile. Then again, all viruses were by nature destructive. These, however, maimed her building simply trying to stand, to move, in it.

She added protection to the hallways further down, adding more and more the closer she got to her mainframe. All of her drones woke at her order, moving to protect the computer where her core personality was stored. Even when she rode a drone, most of the data that consisted her true being rested in the supercomputer because no drone she had yet to create would be able to handle her full presence.

She immediately got the message that the virus had been fixed; she kept the screen of the four viruses up, adding another screen, seeing the repairs they had made. The throat appeared to be ruined, but looks meant nothing. Until she attempted to speak through this body, any speculation remained unfounded.

She quickly transferred part of herself into the virus. And then more, and more, something akin to exhilaration flooding through her as she found that for once all of her fit into the body of one being. She knew nothing of the fact that the mainframe blinked out of existence, for the first time since it had come online.

She moved, stalking through the corridors, quickly gaining control of this body. It was quite easy, in fact; the difference in weight affected her less now that she existed solely in this. It. Him, she remembered vaguely, purging that thought. Drones had no gender, viruses had less right to them.

The others stopped when they saw her, drones pulling back, having been forewarned that it would be her in this body. They also knew that the virus would not be allowed up, much less this far in the building. It had to be the queen as no other being could ride another body; that was her domain, and hers alone.

The other viruses looked appropriately startled, one of them staring at her neck. When they spoke to her, she paid attention, watching them to see if any of them would move towards her. When the largest one did, she moved back. They all froze.

"Bumblebee."

She had caught enough human speech to make out the phonetics, and thus to make out some words; it was still far too easy as they used a different language. Even though it had more in common with English than binary code did, she assumed that some primitive memories, such as language, had clung to the body during the transfer. Her optics dimmed. "Not Bumblebee." Her voice was low, grated, something internal grinding, and she wondered how permanent the repairs were. No matter; she cared little for this feature of the body, as she would have little use for it in the future.

They all tensed, the larger one stepping back, another one stepping forward, scanning her. She snarled at it, and it stopped. There was a long moment of silence, and she crouched, the body reacting instinctually once again, as a helmet came down, protecting her face, cannons pulling out of her arms.

One of them in back pulled out bigger canons. She wanted those.

Author's notes: Again, reviews love, and I'm not very self-confident. I'm going to start writing the next chapter once I get five more reviews, to give me a little time to work on my Sam/Prime fic...

Also, for those of you who don't know, I have an interest in obeah, hoodoo and voodoo. As does William Gibson and Spook Country and the characters and the loa influenced me. Did I base it on exactly how the loa work? Eh, no. But I took some of the concepts, and I am intentionally perverting those concepts because the Red Queen is using them, but since she is an insane robot whore... I profusely apologize ahead of time. While I myself am an atheist, I would lean towards voodoo as my religion of choice, as I find it more palatable than any other and I'm attracted to a lot of the concepts than I am to any other religion. Simple as that. It is misunderstood, a great deal, and I just need this long ass note to make sure that everyone knows that I have the utmost respect for voodoo - not the watered down movie-versions, or the ones used to titillate but true voodoo.


	4. Chapter 3: Through the Looking Glass

Author's notes: I'm suffering from vertigo again. (It's been on and off for a couple years, I've been tested for everything and no one knows why; it's been really bad the past couple of days, so I'm going to use the OMFG, I feel like I'm going to fall when I'm lying down as an excuse to be lazy and not proofread. I was pretty careful when writing, so things should be neat and tidy.) It also might be a shorter chapter due to me being really dizzy, but I wanted to get something out for you guys.

Please review. big puppy dog eyes Please?

---

**Chapter 3: Through the Looking Glass**

None of them moved towards the queen, but the helmet remained down, the cannons out. There was no telling if they might change their mind, and she would not risk leaving herself defenseless if they planned on attacking. The larger one glanced at the virus with the cannons out, and she smirked as they were put away.

"Who are you, if not Bumblebee?"

How interesting that they either did not know, or did not recognize her. She canted her head. "The Red Queen." She managed to sound haughty, even with the voice half-destroyed as it was. At least her name seemed to get them to think.

"We were looking for our friend." The larger one stood between her, and its drones.

She nodded, in acknowledgment, the silence tense between them.

"What have you done with him?" Something changed in its voice; she gave enough orders to know when one was being issued.

She went rigid at the demand, the gall of the virus making her hiss out her displeasure with it. "What was necessary." She spoke more smoothly than she had before, but there was still the grating quality that she despised. She would either have to stop speaking completely, or have the drones do further repairs. She opted for the first choice.

The larger of her potential combatants narrowed his optics, and her left foot went back, bracing herself should she find herself in need. They all tensed once again, and she found the larger cannons aimed at her once again, tilting her head.

"Stand back." The largest one was clearly in control, and she formulated the hypothesis that his bulk gave him the position as their leader.

The one with the cannons made rumbling sounds, but pulled his cannons back into his arms, crossing them over his chest, his gaze on her. She nodded at him, knowing that they at least understood one another, smirking when his optics narrowed.

The large one spoke again. "If we harm... her, we harm Bumblebee's body." He paused, apparently the most diplomatic of the group. "What do want in exchange for him?"

"You can offer me nothing, virus. You and all your kind will be terminated." The voice began to rasp more, giving out on her. Pleased, she raised her cannon, prepared to fight if necessary. Their leader held up his hand, waving them back.

Fighting would be necessary. If not now, then later. The Red Queen canted her head, considering. Now would be best, as taking out the viruses would give her four new bodies, all of which seemed to be equipped differently.

She fired on the offenders, the body making a loud, grating sound through it's still partially demolished throat, when the larger canons shot back, hitting her shoulder. She cried out, telling the drones to go after the viruses, who had taken the chance to run. Not only were they a nuisance, but cowards as well.

The drones stared at her, not responding to the orders that they were unable to understand. With one option left to her, she pulled out of the body - or attempted to. The drones would not accept her; coming from this body, they would read her a virus since she had flagged it as such. The computer was... not responding.

It suddenly became obvious why they had run. Not cowardice after all. They had simply gotten to her true self, her true body, or someone else had. She wondered who had helped them. The humans, as her creators, now wanted her dead. The viruses could not be a product of human technology, however. They were far too advanced and the humans lacked the man power and supplies to build anything of that size, especially while keeping it from the queen and her drones. In addition, they had come from off the planet, while nothing of that size had left; she controlled what left the planet, although these alien viruses had successfully invaded. Her control of the planet was not complete with them here.

---

Captain Lennox glared at the craters. "Come on, there's not any time," he snapped out. Even the kids here were hardened soldiers already; they had all seen people that they loved struck down, pulled apart, shot. Dying and dead. Lennox tried to shake the thought off. He had no time to think about Sarah, or Annabelle.

All he had wanted was to come home, to see his baby girl. And he had, once, although the memory of it was marred, making his stomach churn, that little spark of pain and anger building into something more. Annabelle had been destroyed, as had her memory.

"Yeah, but Lennox, what _did_ this?" Mikaela's eyes were hard as she asked the question. Miles and Sam were the two other teenagers that represented what they had found of her high school, and Mikaela had quickly claimed the dominant position amongst the three. Right now, she squinted up at Lennox, and the boys flanked her.

Lennox snorted softly. "Personally, Mikaela, I don't know. And I sure as hell don't want to run into whatever did that. Got it?"

She shrugged, but the boys tensed beside her. "Alright." She licked her lips and hurried to Lennox's side, as he started off. The trip out to get food and other assorted supplies had lasted too long already, but they'd been told that the drones weren't out. Obviously the Red Queen was distracted, so they'd managed to get in to Mission City and out without any casualties. Hell, without running into any of the bitch's drones.

"I'm just saying, it's not the queen."

Lennox sighed. "Or it is, and we just don't know it yet."

"Yeah." Mikaela paused. Persistence was definitely one of the qualities that made her alpha with the guys. "But if it's not, what the fuck did that?" Mikaela shuddered, not only at her own question but the possible answers. "Because, it's huge, and we don't know what it is or what it wants. Not knowing that bugs me."

"Yeah. Bugs me too, kid. But if it is hostile, and I'm going to assume that it is, then I don't want to find out while we're out in the open."

Mikaela relaxed at the answer, smiling slightly at him. "Thanks."

"No problem, kid." Although, it was, even if just a little. Lennox glanced at the group. Large enough that he had trouble keeping track of them all, even when they were in one place like this, and Lennox didn't need any other distractions. They had a ten minute trek back to the hoover dam. And below that, the one building the queen hadn't been able to get to yet.

They surprisingly arrived there in one piece. The radio they had set up to contact other groups was working, better than it had been in a long while. It meant the airwaves were clear, and probably not as tightly censored as before.

Maggie and Glen were crouching by the radio, talking softly; she looked up as Lennox came into the communications area, although Glen kept his gaze right on the radio. Lennox got the feeling he was waiting for a miracle from that box, like it might go 'poof' and resurrect his cousin, and his grandma.

Maggie stood, going to Lennox's side, shaking her head.

"What's happening?"

Maggie made a face. "It's like she's gone." She let out a sharp breath. "Completely."

"Isn't that a good thing Maggie?" But Lennox only managed to look and sound more tired. They both knew this could be a trap.

She shrugged. "We'll wait it out. Someone else will probably take the bait."

Lennox nodded. He hated thinking that someone else would take the fall, but if they were stupid enough to believe that the queen was going to just forget about them, then it was their own damn fault. "Tell me if it's still like this in a couple days."

Mikaela, Sam, and Miles were rationing some of the food, storing most of the food, and locking it up. Trust was a luxury here, and they couldn't chance it with the food. Lennox trusted them enough, because Mikaela would be watching over the boys. She was tough, to the point of being brutal if needed. A real bitch, as Epps was fond of saying, mostly to her face.

She was honest, too. Straight as... well, straighter than a lot of the survivors. He trusted her to kick the boys down if they got grabby.

"Epps hasn't come back." Maggie glanced back at Glen.

"Has he been by the radio all this time?"

"Yeah." After a pause, Maggie pushed again. "You heard what I said about Epps, right?"

"Epps has more trained personnel with him. Hell, Epps _is_ trained personnel. I'm not worried about him or his group, and I'm not going to be worried unless they don't get in within the next half an hour.

Maggie sighed. "Glen's not eating again." She lowered her voice, chewing softly on her lower lip. Of course she was worried; she had known Glen before all this went down. Before the Red Queen had taken over, turning their world into some kind of twisted Alice In Wonderland. "Off with their heads," was the expression they used, when they saw victims of those drones she had patrolling. It was written or spray painted all over the place, marking the places where she had been responsible for too many slaughters to count. Too many lives taken for Lennox to think about the numbers and stay sane.

He knew if he went to his house - or the place where it had once stood - that he would go back and see those letters, in red spray paint. The queen didn't care about what it said, or where it said it. She might be proud, she might consider it her motto now. But he knew that Epps had gone back, after they had come up with it, and painted it on the driveway.

He closed his eyes, tightly at the thought. "Tell Mikaela you need to get him to eat. Maybe she can help." He let out a deep breath, and opened his eyes, Maggie frozen in front of him. "He's too important."

Maggie nodded, and went off, to do as she was told. Lennox watched her with Mikaela. "Dammit." He hissed out the word, curling his hand into fists, slamming one against the wall. He had become very close to Epps, especially after the incident, knowing what Epps had done for Annabell and Sarah. Lennox would have done it eventually, but he had been in shock, for a very long time.

Seeing those words on his driveway for the first time had pulled him out of it. Epps had been responsible. And Lennox hated when the other man was away from the base for too long. Despite what he had told Maggie, Lennox worried every moment Epps was gone.


End file.
